Justin Wagner responds to Greg Ball letter-writing flap

Justin Wagner, a Democrat challenging State Sen. Greg Ball, R-Patterson for his seat prepresenting the 40th district in the State Legislature, is calling for a face-to-face debate with his opponent.

This comes after a story yesterday in The Journal News/Lohud.com by Marcela Rojas that detailed how Ball’s staff instructed others on letter-writting techniques with specifics on what to say and how to criticize Wagner.

Ball’s Campaign Manager Jim Coleman said in the story that urging letter writing is a part of running for office.

“This is an important part of our community outreach program to get the word out about Senator Ball and his good work. We are currently collecting dozens of testimonials from folks who have been personally helped by Senator Ball and who believe in his work. That said, working with supporters who have been helped and to run an outreach campaign is not unique to this office,”Coleman told Rojas, TJN reporter.

“Greg, I think the people of the Hudson Valley deserve better,” Wagner wrote in a letter this morning to Ball, where he challenged him to a debate.

Ball is seeking a second term.

As Wagner says in his letter about the recent story: “This comes on the heels of an admission by your campaign to having sent a blast e-mail in my name and revelations that you personally registered an attack website aimed at me. An early version of that website featured a picture of my one year old daughter. I even saw that your campaign spokesman called me a “scolded dog” the other day in the paper, and that’s of course in addition to the rounds of robo-calls and mailers.”

To sum it up, Wagner adds:

“Greg—we are of the same generation and are both relatively young. Our generation doesn’t have to repeat the tiresome politics of those past—we can give the voters something better.”